For more than 20 years Dr. Robert Buxbaum's Ferndale-based company has been designing technologies that filter hydrogen. That may not sound particularly exciting to the everyday Joe but when you consider that he has contracts with the U.S. and U.K. Navies and believes his product could have prevented the Fukushima meltdown you understand how focusing on something very small can have a very large impact.

Business has long operated on the Darwinian principle: evolve or die. Though Metro Detroit's manufacturing sector has taken a beating these past few decades some local companies are not only weathering the storm but actually growing. Dennis Archambault talks with a new generation of leadership about their high-tech plans to diversify

Mike is president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK. A passionate advocate for the transformation of Michigan's high-tech economy he also managed the MEDC’s $1 billion Michigan Life Sciences Corridor initiative between 2000 and 2002. Mike will be wriing about who's making a difference in the Michigan and why.